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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TOKYO 002187 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA 
WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST DIVISION; 
TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE; 
SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN, 
DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA 
FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR; 
CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA
SUBJECT:  DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 05/15/07 
 
 
INDEX: 
 
(1) Referendum bill passes Diet: Advocates of protecting 
Constitution to launch offensive to protect Article 9 
 
(2) Editorial: Passage of groundbreaking national referendum 
legislation 
 
(3) Futenma not dangerous: Maher 
 
(4) Seiron (Opinion) column by Hisahiko Okazaki: Prime Minister 
Abe's recent visit to US and the state of play of the comfort-women 
issue 
 
(5) "Peace prize" awarded to Women's Active Museum on "comfort 
women" 
 
(6) American liberals support Japan's possible constitutional 
revision 
 
(7) Japan's space exploration strategy: Japan should explore ways 
for growth with miniaturization 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) Referendum bill passes Diet: Advocates of protecting 
Constitution to launch offensive to protect Article 9 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 29) (Excerpts) 
May 215, 2007 
 
The national referendum bill, which sets legal procedures for 
revision of the Constitution, passed the Diet yesterday. The 
Constitution has supported the national foundation of Japan over the 
past 60 years. It is now highly likely that the Japanese people will 
be asked in the near future for their views about what the 
Constitution of Japan should be. The law will go into effect in 
2011, at the earliest. All the people now have to seriously consider 
a new constitution to determine the shape of this nation. 
 
Advocates of protection of the Constitution have opposed the 
enactment of the national referendum bill itself. But Hajime Imai, 
chief of secretariat of the information office of the civic group on 
national and local referendums, lashes out at their approach: "The 
people cannot follow their strategy that will result in depriving 
them of the opportunity to use their right." 
 
Imai's criticism of pro-Constitution group's approach reflects his 
concern that the Constitution could lose substance as a result of 
the government moving ahead with the process of reinterpreting the 
Constitution, with debate on Article 9 reaching a gridlock. Imai 
said: "It should be desirable for pro-Constitution types to win a 
victory in a national referendum and prevent progress in 
constitutional reform. They must take an approach to win a majority 
in a vote in carrying out a campaign." 
 
In an effort to break the impasse in conventional campaigns against 
constitutional revision, writer Oe Kenzaburo and others called out 
and launched in June 2004 a group to protect Article 9. The group, 
taking a referendum into consideration from the beginning, set the 
goal of rallying a majority to protect the Constitution. The number 
of groups calling for protecting the Constitution now has boosted to 
more than 6,000 in only less than three years of period. The 
 
TOKYO 00002187  002 OF 009 
 
 
conservative groups, too, have been expanding. 
 
Former Ishikawa prefectural assembly member Masanori Kamiguchi, 75, 
joined the Ishikawa branch of the Article 9 group last year. 
Kamiguchi, former Liberal Democratic Party Ishikawa prefectural 
branch secretary general, said: 
 
"Seven of my relatives were killed in air raids. For me, Article 9 
is a world heritage. Unless members of the Japanese Communist Party 
and the Social Democratic Party pull free from party interests, the 
circle of protecting the Constitution will never spread any wider." 
 
There are more than 100 million voters eligible for a national 
referendum. Article 9 group managing director Yoichi Komori, 
professor at the University of Tokyo, said: "To achieve the goal of 
securing a majority, it is necessary to make an approach to win at 
lease 80% of them over to us." Group members plan to make a 
door-to-door visit. 
 
Komori said: "It is important to stage a campaign based on personal 
ties. For instance, giving consideration to young persons who are 
unable to climb up from the bottom of th heap in society where wide 
wealth inequality exists, we should refer to problems linked o our 
livelihood, instead of just calling for protecting Article 9." 
 
(2) Editorial: Passage of groundbreaking national referendum 
legislation 
 
NIHON KEIZAI (Page 2) (Full) 
May 15, 2007 
 
The national referendum bill stipulating procedures for amending the 
Constitution was enacted yesterday at a plenary session of the Upper 
House. It is groundbreaking that a right to amend the Constitution 
by popular sovereignty, a practice that has been neglected, has at 
last taken on a concrete form. The move has a significant bearing. 
We want the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Democratic Party of 
Japan (DPJ or Minshuto) and the New Komeito to pursue serious 
discussion on a constitution befitting the 21st century, based on 
trends in public opinion. 
 
It is in principle desirable for the national referendum bill, as a 
neutral and objective set of rules, to be enacted with approval 
gained also from the DPJ, the largest opposition party. It is 
regrettable that the DPJ opposed the bill, emphasizing its stance of 
confronting the ruling camp with an eye on the July Upper House 
election just ahead. However, since the views of the DPJ were 
reflected in the bill to a considerable extent through talks between 
the ruling and opposition camps until the roll call in the Lower 
House, it seems proper to regard the law as the de facto 
collaboration of the LDP, the New Komeito and the DPJ. 
 
Opposition parties during Upper House deliberations proposed 
adopting a minimum voter turnout rate system. However, the views of 
even those who are in favor of adopting such a system differed when 
it came to the question of what percentage would be appropriate. The 
proposal cannot be regarded as serious unless it is attached with 
appropriate percentage and grounds for that. Basically any mature 
democratic country does not need such a system as a voter turnout 
system. It is only natural that the DPJ did not incorporate a 
minimum voter turnout system in its counterproposal submitted to the 
Upper House. 
 
 
TOKYO 00002187  003 OF 009 
 
 
A constitutional research council will be established both in the 
Upper and Lower Houses starting from the next Diet session, based on 
the National Referendum Law. Deliberations on draft proposals for 
amending the Constitution will be put on hold for three years, but 
deliberations on general outline or gist of such proposals before 
drafting amendment proposals will be possible. The LDP has already 
prepared a new draft constitution year before last. The DPJ and the 
New Komeito should immediately draft their own proposals on 
constitutional revision in specific terms and submit them to the 
Diet's constitutional research councils in the form of general 
outline or gist of proposals. 
 
Though the LDP and the New Komeito did not in the end arrive at an 
agreement with the DPJ over the national referendum bill, the 
political situation will change once the Upper House election in 
July is over. A certain mild consensus was reached among the three 
parties on the way the Constitution should be through five-year 
discussions by the Constitutional Research Councils of both Diet 
chambers from 2000 through 2005. If the three parties accumulate 
serious discussions through such a process, it will be possible for 
the three parties to reach a consensus. 
 
The meaning of the passage of the national referendum legislation is 
not just it will become possible to amend the Constitution three 
years hence. Proposing amending the Constitution to the people 
requires approval from two-thirds of the members of both the Upper 
and Lower Houses. In order to form a two-thirds majority, a move to 
search for the realignment of political circles, such as major 
coalition between the LDP and the DPJ will probably appear. Creating 
fresh tension in political circles is another significant effect of 
the National Referendum Law. 
 
(3) Futenma not dangerous: Maher 
 
OKINAWA TIMES (Page 3) (Full) 
May 15, 2007 
 
Kevin Maher, US consul general in Okinawa, addressed the Okinawa 
Association of Corporate Executives (Okinawa Keizai Doyukai) 
yesterday in its regular meeting for the month on a future outlook 
for the realignment of US forces in Japan. In his speech, Maher 
revealed that the Japanese government, in its talks with the US 
government over the planned realignment of US forces in Japan, had 
made it a precondition for the US Marine Corps to continue its 
contribution to the defense of Japan even after moving its 
Okinawa-based troops (to Guam) in the process of scaling back on its 
presence on Okinawa. "We judged that there's no place but Guam when 
we thought of a place where we can contribute to the defense of 
Japan after their transfer," Maher explained. With this, the consul 
general implied that the Japanese government's proposal of a 
precondition regarding where to move Marine troops was a 
behind-the-scenes factor of the Japanese government's decision to 
share the cost of transferring Marine troops from Okinawa to Guam. 
 
Referring to the planned transfer of 8,000 Marine troops from 
Okinawa to Guam, Maher underscored the purpose of the realignment of 
US forces. "This is not the beginning of the withdrawal of the 
Marines from Okinawa," Maher said. "Instead," he added, "the 
Japanese and US governments are going to underpin the US military 
presence through steps to mitigate the burden of local communities 
in the vicinity of bases across the nation." 
 
In addition, Maher explained that the transfer of some of the 
 
TOKYO 00002187  004 OF 009 
 
 
Kadena-based F-15 fighters' flight training missions to other bases 
in mainland prefectures is aimed primarily at improving the 
interoperability of US Forces Japan and the Self-Defense Forces. 
"One of its major purposes is to heighten interoperability (between 
Japan and the United States)," Maher said. "I think it will help 
resolve the noise problem of Kadena somewhat in the end," he added. 
 
Touching on the danger of Futenma airfield, Maher clarified his 
view: "In my eyes, Futenma is not dangerous, in particular when 
compared with the density of the population around the Atsugi base 
and Fukuoka Airport. Fukuoka Airport has more planes arriving than 
Futenma." 
 
On the issue of relocating Futenma airfield, Okinawa Prefecture and 
Nago City have been calling for the Japanese government to build an 
offshore facility. "Our bilateral roadmap, which was released in May 
last year (as a report finalized on the US military's realignment), 
is not an abstract agreement. We have also reached an agreement on 
the location of runways in consideration of noise and environmental 
problems, feasibility, and various other factors. It's meaningless 
to change the location again from now, if there's no reason to do 
so." 
 
(4) Seiron (Opinion) column by Hisahiko Okazaki: Prime Minister 
Abe's recent visit to US and the state of play of the comfort-women 
issue 
 
SANKEI (Page 11) (Full) 
May 14, 2007 
 
Hisahiro Okazaki, former ambassador to Thailand 
 
Adverse effect on Japan-US relations sidestepped 
 
Although it is still unclear how deliberations in the US Congress on 
the "comfort women" issue will unfold in the days ahead, it is safe 
to say that Prime Minister Abe in his recent visit to the United 
States managed to just barely avoid having the issue adversely 
effect Japan-US relations. 
 
Let us recollect the course of this issue until recently. Initially, 
Japanese and US policy specialists agreed that the House resolution 
on the comfort women should be given minimum attention. Even if it 
were adopted, the resolution would have no binding power. A 
resolution is merely a tool for lawmakers to demonstrate their 
performance to their electorates. Making a fuss over this one would 
only help exaggerate the issue even further. 
 
This strategy was foiled almost at once, however, when foreign news 
companies reported to Americans across the country the prime 
minister's answers to questions about comfort women raised by 
opposition party members in the Diet. 
 
The entire American media picked up on the story. In the meantime, 
Prime Minister Abe continued to make two assertions: that he stood 
by the apology (to comfort women) contained in the Kono Statement 
and that there is no evidence to show coercion (of women into sexual 
servitude) in the narrow sense. Indeed, Abe did everything he could 
do without sacrificing his intellectual integrity. 
 
But the tone in the US toward his remarks was severe beyond anyone's 
expectations. Even news companies usually favorable to Japan quoted 
the absurd story that Japan had forced 200,000 Asian women into 
 
TOKYO 00002187  005 OF 009 
 
 
sexual servitude or claimed that what Prime Minister Abe was saying 
was tantamount to portraying the women forced into prostitution as 
liars. As a result, debate on the issue appears to have been 
rejected at present. 
 
Human rights issues always draw public attention 
 
Initially, this situation was incomprehensible in Japan. Some even 
speculated that the powerful propaganda hand of China was somehow at 
work here. But gradually the real situation has become clear. This 
was for Americans a human rights issue, as seen through the absolute 
eyes of Evangelicals, who make up a third of voters in the US. For 
them, whether coercion existed or not is immaterial. They see the 
comfort-women system per se as evil. No American, including 
newspaper reporters, can raise objections once the matter is seen as 
human-rights related. 
 
Whether it is the past or present, human rights issues have always 
drawn public attention in the US. Moreover, times have changed. If 
soldiers carrying out peacekeeping operations (PKO for the United 
Nations buy sex, they are punished now. It is of useless for a PKO 
soldier to insist that the sex that he bought was not from a woman 
coerced to work as a prostitute or that other troops also did the 
same. Such would be taken as an excuse and only add to the bad 
impression. 
 
Although Abe said he has inherited the Kono Statement, Americans 
have no idea what he is talking about. Americans may take such as a 
tactical move to avoid criticism. It would be a good idea, I think, 
for Abe to apologize in his own words. The prime minister cannot 
tell a lie if he is questioned about "coercion in the narrow sense," 
but such a factor is not the core of the issue in the first place. 
If he (admitted to coercion in the narrow sense), what he should do 
next is to apologize about Japan having adopted the comfort women 
system as an act of hurting women's dignity and ignoring human 
rights. 
 
Common sense needed instead of calling a spade a spade 
 
The best part of the prime minister's remarks went like this: "The 
20th century was a time when human rights were violated. Japan, too, 
was also responsible for that. I expressed my sympathy and 
apologies." 
 
Abe's remarks are in a way reminiscent of Weizsacker's remarks, in 
which Weizsacker dealt with the dark side of the war while admitting 
to Germany's war responsibility and insisting that the Germans, too, 
were victims. Americans who heard of (Abe's remarks) reportedly 
soberly recalled cases of violations of black people's human rights 
in the 1960s before the civil-rights movement. 
 
The US government and Congress have accepted Japan's explanation. 
Regardless of the results of the debate on the resolution in the US 
Congress, the (comfort women) issue is unlikely to remain as a 
bilateral issue in the future. In this sense, the prime minister's 
visit to the US produced a significant result, noteworthy in a year 
in which upcoming developments are unpredictable such as the 
upcoming 70th anniversary of the Nanking Incident. 
 
Some are unhappy with Japan making an apology, arguing that such 
only hurts the honor of the former Imperial Japanese Army and the 
national status of Japan. They take issue with the argument about 
whether "coercion" existed or not, and they insist that the issue 
 
TOKYO 00002187  006 OF 009 
 
 
must be settled once and for all by thoroughly investigating the 
facts to call a spade a spade. 
 
My own view, however, is different, for I do not think such is 
necessary. It is more important for us to use our common sense. 
 
Everything depends on the principle of supply and demand. If supply 
grows larger than demand, coercion becomes unnecessary. Supply is a 
function of reward, and so with sufficient reward, supply can be 
secured. It would be good if we only had proper documentation 
concerning this matter. There might have been some who lost all they 
had earned with Japan's defeat in the war, but others might have 
returned home safely with assets enough for them to open their own 
shops. There might have been some exceptional cases, given the 
nature of battlefields, but those cases should have been regarded as 
acts subject to be punished under the Japanese military's criminal 
code. 
 
Nonetheless, under the moral standards today, the correct act is to 
apologize for the comfort women system as a human rights violations 
that damaged women's dignity. 
 
(5) "Peace prize" awarded to Women's Active Museum on "comfort 
women" 
 
ASAHI ON-LINE NEWS (Full) 
May 15, 2007, at 14:33 p.m. 
 
The Women's Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM headed by Rumiko 
Nishino), a museum displaying voices of victims of the former 
Imperial Japanese Army's comfort women system, received the 2007 
peace award from the non-government Catholic peace movement body, 
Pax Christi International (based in Brussels). WAM is the first 
Japanese organization to receive such recognition. The award 
ceremony is to take place this evening at WAM in Tokyo's Shinjuku 
Ward. 
 
Pax Christi International has a membership of 60,000 organizations 
spread out over 50 countries. It has awarded former European Union 
President Delors and the late Special Representative of the United 
Nations Secretary General De Melo its peace prize. The organization 
has since 1988 awarded peace prizes to activists working in such 
conflict-affected regions as Croatia, the Philippines, and Rwanda. 
WAM, which was established in 2005, has now been chosen as a winner 
for the peace prize because it "established, for peaceful purposes, 
a place to record sexual violence committed toward women in 
wartime." 
 
(6) American liberals support Japan's possible constitutional 
revision 
 
SANKEI (Page 7 (Full) 
May 12, 2007 
 
By Yoshihisa Komori 
 
When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the United States in late 
April, Tom Lantos, chairman of the US House Foreign Relations 
Committee, told Abe that he supports the prime minister's effort to 
revise the Constitution. This was a significant matter, but the fact 
was hardly reported in Japan. 
 
I have looked into how the attitude of the US toward Japan's 
 
TOKYO 00002187  007 OF 009 
 
 
constitution has changed over the past 20 years. Lantos' remarks 
reminded me of history gradually changing in this way. His words are 
expected to take on much meaning in future debate on constitutional 
revision in Japan and in gauging Americans' responses to it. 
 
Prime Minister Abe met a dozen or so members from both houses of 
Congress in Washington on April 26. The prime minister stressed the 
importance of strengthening the Japan-US alliance and then said, "I 
feel sorry" for the so-called comfort women. Lantos leads the House 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, where the comfort-women resolution is 
currently under debate. Without referring to the comfort-women 
issue, Lantos said as follows: 
 
"I recognize that Japan has played a wonderful role in economic and 
development aid in the international community. In addition, I 
strongly support Prime Minister Abe's efforts to revise the 
Constitution in order also for Japan to fulfill its role as a major 
power in the security area." 
 
Lantos is famous for his liberal stance in the Democratic Party. He 
is a Jew who came from Hungary and has had the experience of having 
been detained in a Nazi concentration camp. It is quite unusual for 
such a liberal political leader to openly express support for 
Japan's constitutional reform. 
 
Lantos has had little to do in relations between Japan and the US. 
Even if he had made the statement above carelessly without fully 
understanding the circumstances, his strong remark gave the clear 
impression of his clear-cut support for Japan's constitutional 
revision. I was impressed by the fact that the propriety of Japan 
revising the Constitution has been recognized and supported to this 
extent in the US. 
 
That is because Democratic Party liberals in the US tend to express 
disapproval of Japan's constitutional reform. A country should 
decide whether to revise its own constitution on its own judgment, 
but the US drew up the Constitution of Japan, and the ban on Japan 
from keeping military forces under Article 9 is closely linked to 
the framework of the Japan-US security alliance, in which Japan 
depends on the US for its defense. 
 
In the 1980s, when I asked then Ambassador to Japan Edwin Reischauer 
about Japan possibly amending the Constitution, he replied: "Japan's 
pendulum might swing excessively sharply." He meant that since Japan 
has radically changed from militarism to democracy and from 
isolationism to the principle of cooperation, it would be 
undesirable for Japan to amend its constitution. Reischauer, an 
expert on Japan, was of course a Democrat. 
 
I asked the same question of John Galbraith, regarded as the typical 
US intellectual. He is a liberal economist, but just after the end 
of WWII, he had visited Tokyo and questioned Japanese leaders as the 
head of the US government's strategic bombing fact-finding team. 
Galbraith's reply was that "Japan should absolutely maintain its 
current constitution without any changes. Should Japan move to amend 
the Constitution, major commotion or instability would be brought 
about in East Asia." 
 
During the Democratic Clinton administration that came into office 
in 1993, Defense Secretary William Perry, Assistant Secretary of 
Defense Joseph Nye, Ambassador to Japan Walter Mondale, and other 
senior US government officials all emphasized: "We want Japan to 
offer cooperation without altering the framework of its 
 
TOKYO 00002187  008 OF 009 
 
 
constitution" in the event of joint defense during an emergency in 
Asia. They sent a clear signal that the constitution should not be 
changed. 
 
Such a kind of view among liberals can be found in editorials of the 
New York Times, such as: "Moves to change the Constitution of Japan 
are a dangerous militarist trend." As I introduced in this column 
before, Alexis Dudden, an associate professor for Japanese studies 
at Connecticut College, came up with a conspiracy theory that linked 
Prime Minister Abe's call for constitutional revision to the issue 
of comfort women. 
 
In the early 1990s, an increasing number of Republican Party members 
and conservatives began to take this view: "In order to make Japan a 
real alliance partner for the US and a responsible member in the 
international community, we should urge Japan to amend its 
constitution, which bans the use of force even for a just cause or 
for deterrence," (Heritage Foundation in 1992). Paul Nitze, a 
prominent conservative scholar on strategic issues, said: "The 
assertion that Japan's amending its Constitution would lead to the 
revival of militarism is a sign of distrust of Japan, in a sense, so 
if you trust Japan is a true democracy, there is no need to worry 
about it amending its constitution." 
 
In the long history of Democratic Party liberalism, Lantos probably 
is the first senior party member who has expressed support for 
Japan's constitutional reform. Does this mean that the sense of 
alarm and distrust in the US toward Japan has waned? 
 
(7) Japan's space exploration strategy: Japan should explore ways 
for growth with miniaturization 
 
YOMIURI (Page 15) (Full) 
May 11, 2007 
 
Tomonao Hayashi, professor at the Chiba Institute of Technology 
 
The government will shortly work out Japan's launching-vehicle 
strategy. Its draft report is noteworthy as it suggests the need for 
Japan to acquire not only large-size rockets but also mid- and 
small-size ones. 
 
Japan has so far pushed ahead with space development projects for 
large-size launching vehicles and produced large-size rockets that 
are called the H-2A and the M-5. The M-5 will now be decommissioned, 
and Japan is looking into the feasibility of developing a new 
small-size rocket to replace the M-5. However, the government, 
according to its current plan, will still keep up its development of 
large-size rockets. 
 
Basing Japan's space exploration only on large-size rockets is like 
organizing a fleet with only gigantic battleships like Musashi- and 
Yamato-class vessels with no task force escorting or otherwise like 
networking railroads with only Shinkansen bullet trains. This scheme 
will end up precluding the needs of satellite users and lacking 
flexibility. Japan will have to resolve this problem in order to 
develop its space activities. 
 
To do so, Japan should also eye developing small-size rockets and 
satellites unlike before. Japan has technical know-how to make it 
possible. 
 
With the integration of electronic technologies for miniaturization, 
 
TOKYO 00002187  009 OF 009 
 
 
there are now components that are small, lightweight, low-powered, 
smart, and inexpensive. Today, there is even a palm-size computer 
that excels a one-time electronic calculator that used to occupy 
several rooms. 
 
If such componentry can be utilized, launching vehicles and their 
payloads can be miniaturized for flexible space activities. However, 
the question is whether they will exactly function in outer space 
even though they work with high reliability on the ground. 
 
We will have to check data in actual space flights, or we will not 
know if they will function in outer space. Japan should probably 
create a system to launch multiple small-size satellites loaded with 
such components to check their functionality for feedback to 
designs. 
 
In fact, Japan has actually launched satellites for that purpose. 
Their flight data is expected to be used for future satellite 
designs. However, they were comparatively large satellites. It 
therefore took a long time to design those large satellites before 
returning them to flight. When a satellite actually got data in 
outer space on its devices, their manufacturers had already stopped 
producing them. 
 
To eliminate such a problem, it is desirable to develop and launch 
small satellites in a short period of time. Japan should accumulate 
data on satellite parts to design and develop small satellites. By 
doing so, Japan will have a basis that will make it possible in time 
to develop small rockets and satellites. 
 
Small satellites will also help young researchers. It will take 10 
years and will cost multibillion yen to develop a large-size 
satellite, so universities and their graduate schools cannot afford 
to do so for their young students. When it comes to small 
satellites, however, things are different. 
 
My university, the Chiba Institute of Technology, also developed a 
minisatellite, which is 50 kilograms, to observe the ecology of 
whales. The minisatellite was launched on an H-2A rocket in 2002. 
 
The development cost of our minisatellite was 80 million yen. It is 
important for students to study in a classroom. However, it is also 
significant for them to experience the actual making and launching 
of a satellite. 
 
There is a limit to what a single small satellite can do. However, 
if several small satellites are synchronized into one system, their 
functions can be substantially improved. One example is earth 
observing. In this case, combined small satellites can be more 
precise than a large satellite in global observation. 
 
The United States, which used to lead large satellites, has now 
embarked on small ones. Europe and China have also set about 
developing small satellites. With such a trend in mind, Japan should 
also explore ways for growth. 
 
DONOVAN